Belarus to New Zealand: 311ms to the World's Most Remote Internet Hub
Based on real RIPE Atlas measurements from GeoCables monitoring infrastructure, March 2026
New Zealand sits at the end of the world — geographically isolated in the South Pacific, connected to the global internet by just a handful of submarine cables. At
311ms, the route from Minsk, Belarus to Auckland is remarkably efficient given the ~18,000km physical distance. The traceroute shows an unusual gap: after Moscow at 48ms, the next visible hop is Auckland at 311ms — 263ms of invisible submarine cable journey.
The Traceroute
| Hop | Location | Network | RTT |
|---|
| 1–2 | Minsk, BY | A1 Belarus (AS42772) | 6ms |
| 3–6 | Minsk, BY | Business Network / NTEC (AS60280) | 2ms |
| 7–8 | Moscow, RU | NTEC → (unknown) | 12–48ms |
| 9–13 | (all timeouts) | submarine cable segment | — |
| 255 | Auckland, NZ | .nz Registry (AS45809) | 311ms |
Hops 9–13 are all timeouts — routers on submarine cable segments typically block ICMP, making the underwater portion of the journey invisible to traceroute. The 263ms gap between Moscow and Auckland represents roughly 18,000km of fiber crossing Russia and the Pacific Ocean.
The Invisible Journey: What Happens in Those 263ms
From Moscow, traffic most likely follows one of these paths:
Option A — Trans-Siberian + Southern Cross:
Moscow → Vladivostok (terrestrial, ~9,000km) →
Southern Cross Cable → Auckland. Southern Cross is New Zealand's primary international submarine cable, connecting Auckland to Sydney, Fiji, Hawaii, and the US West Coast. Moscow to Vladivostok via fiber takes approximately 50ms; Vladivostok to Auckland via Southern Cross adds another ~120ms.
Option B — Via Singapore/Hong Kong:
Moscow → Hong Kong (~167ms as seen in the KR route) →
Southern Cross or
Hawaiki → Auckland. This alternative adds latency but may be preferred by some carriers for peering reasons.
The 311ms total RTT is consistent with Option A.
New Zealand's Cable Dependency
New Zealand's entire international internet connectivity depends on three main submarine cables:
-
Southern Cross (to Australia, Fiji, Hawaii, US): primary international cable
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Hawaiki (to Australia, Hawaii, Oregon): opened 2018, adds redundancy
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Tasman Global Access (TGA) (to Australia): trans-Tasman connectivity
All three land at Auckland or the surrounding region, making Auckland a genuine single point of failure for New Zealand's internet. A simultaneous fault on Southern Cross and Hawaiki would severely degrade New Zealand's international connectivity.
The Last Mile: .nz Registry
The destination — AS45809, the .nz domain registry — is New Zealand's DNS infrastructure. This is the authoritative nameserver for all .nz domains, making it a foundational piece of New Zealand's internet infrastructure.
Monitoring Status
-
Current RTT: 311ms |
Invisible hops: 5 (submarine cable segment)
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Path: Minsk → Moscow →
(submarine) → Auckland
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Note: 263ms of this journey is completely invisible to traceroute — the ocean floor between Russia and New Zealand